Don't slam Modi, hail his development agenda: BJP

New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) The BJP Monday said the Congress does not have the right to criticise Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's performance as he has won three elections based on his development agenda.

"The Congress which couldn't defeat him in Gujarat on these very issues is talking about it from Delhi now," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman told Times Now news channel.

She said the Prime Minister's Office and the Planning Commission had also acknowledged Gujarat's development.

"Therefore, substantial debate has to be on these issues and not just rhetoric," she said.

Sitharaman was replying to a Congress counter-attack on Modi for his speech Sunday accusing the ruling party of failing to address poverty and using a "veil of secularism" to cover its failures.

The Congress countered Modi by saying that Gujarat lagged behind the national average when it came to developmental statistics.